Australian news, and some related international items

Up until now, the uranium industry could get investment just by itself, with the promise of the “boom to come” (- no connection with nuclear power, nuclear weapons.)

In 2011 a new marketing phase takes off, requiring Australians to be sold on the idea of the entire nuclear fuel cycle. Marketing this to the public will mean placing the “nuclear debate” up front, while quietly downgrading or ignoring developments in renewable energy.

Still the SELLING ANGLES will be much the same as in previous years.

1. GREED: Acceptance of nuclear power will be explained as necessary for Australia’s uranium to be a top investment.

2. FEAR:The pitch will be the importance of nuclear’s role in Australia’s security. Need to enhance U.S. military presence here. Need to co-operate fully with USA.

3. Contractual OBLIGATIONS: As a member of the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation, (formerly the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership), Australia will be said to be legally obliged to take back radioactive wastes. The best arrangement would be to have the full nuclear cycle here.

4. PATRIOTISM: Australians can’t let Canada or Kazakhstan lead the world in uranium sales. Australia must be the best. We will be told that Australia is being left behind in the global rush to go nuclear.

5. CLIMATE CHANGE: Hand-picked climate change “experts” will pronounce on nuclear power as either THE solution, or, more tactfully, an essential part of the solution to climate change. (We will be assured that anti-nuclear environmentalists are the fanatical fringe)

6. ENERGY SECURITY: Australian swill be told about how much more energy we will be consuming. We will need nuclear energy to supply our growing population and ever-rising “standard of living”. Much emphasis will be placed on “base load power”

7. APPEAL to COMMON SENSE Australians will be told to get real. Look, one and a half billion Chinese can’t be wrong. France is the nuclear model. Everybody’s going nuclear